Lexra disputes MIPS's claims of favorable ruling

SAN JOSE -- Lexra Inc. today claimed it had won key interpretations on two patents in a lawsuit filed by MIPS Technologies Inc., which is accusing the company of infringing upon its instruction sets for RISC processors. On Tuesday, MIPS claimed it had won favorable rulings from the judge in the interpretation of the disputed patents (see Sept. 18 story).

Both companies said they now have an advantage in the lawsuit after the interpretations were handed down following the "Markman hearing" in the case. While MIPS Technologies said it was now ready for a lengthy trial to begin, Lexra said the interpretations on MIPS Technologies' patents opens the way for it to file for a summary judgment to end the suit.

According to Lexra, only two specific claims required the judge's interpretations. The San Jose company said U.S. Judge Saundra B. Armstrong's half-page opinion defined what "transformation" means in U.S. Patent No. 5,864,703 and what "during an instruction" means in U.S. Patent No. 4,814,976. Lexra claimed that the court adopted its definition of "transformation" in the '703 patent as requiring a processor to perform all "scaling, rounding, and clamping" functionality in one instruction, instead of in any set of separate operations as MIPS has argued.

In the case of the '976 patent, Lexra said the court interpreted "during an instruction" to mean that the unaligned transfer must be done in two instructions. The company said it is confident its emulation code does not infringe since many instructions are required.

"We are very pleased with the judge's interpretations, and are confident that they will accelerate our legal victory," Charlie Cheng, president and CEO of Lexra.